Bathroom cleaning consists of removing mold and mildew as well as soap scum. Hypochlorite is the best in killing and removing mold and mildew organisms/stains in damp places such as the bathroom. Unfortunately, the existing hypochlorite containing products have a poor performance in removing soap scum.
Soap scum is mostly the precipitated calcium/magnesium salts of the fatty acid chain present in the soap with some multivalent cations depending on the hardness of the water supply, particulate dirt, lint and some skin cells. Such dirt composition is very difficult to be removed with alkaline products. Hence, historically, dedicated products such as acid base and non-bleach alkaline products containing solvents are used solely for soap scum removal with the drawback of not being able to effectively remove mold and mildew. Consequently, another product, typically with hypochlorite is used in tandem to remove mold and mildew.
Hypochlorite products require high level of alkalinity for stability reason. Couple with the very limited as well as very costly solvent materials that can be compatible with hypochlorite, makes it very challenging to develop a hypochlorite containing product for its mold and mildew performance that can provide superior soap scum removal.
The instant invention discloses a hypochlorite product that provides superior soap scum removal in the laboratory testing and still is effective in removing mold and mildew.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,239 teaches an acidic bleaching solution containing a chlorine deactivating agent.
EPA Patent 0,875,552 teaches an acidic limescale removing composition containing an acid.
EPA Patent 0,630,963 teaches an acid microemulsion composition designed to remove soap scum.